Directory_and_Chronicle_1886 — Page 412

SHANGHAI.

411

services they regained possession of the important city of Soochow on 27th November, 1863, which virtually ended the rebellion. A monument in memory of the officers who fell stands at the north end of the Bund. From 1860 to 1865 one British and two Indian Regiments and a battery of Artillery were stationed at Shanghai.

Since that time there have been few historical events worthy of record in a brief summary. On Christmas eve, 1870, the British Consulate was burned down and most of the records completely lost. In May, 1874, a riot occurred in the French Settlement, owing to the intention of the Municipal Council to make a road through an old graveyard belonging to the Ningpo Guild. One or two Europeans were severely injured, and three natives lost their lives. A considerable amount of foreign owned property was destroyed. An extensive fire in the French Concession in August, 1879, destroyed 991 houses; the loss was estimated at Tls. 1,500,000.

As at all the open ports, foreigners are in judicial matters subject to the immediate control of their Consuls, British subjects coming under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, which was opened in September, 1865. Subjects of Her Britannic Majesty have to pay a poll tax of five dollars for gentlemen and one dollar for "artizans and labourers," for which they have the privilege of being registered at the Consulate, and of being heard as plaintiffs before the Court. There is enforced registra- tion at several of the other Consulates, but it is free of charge. Chinese residents in the Foreign Settlements are amenable to their own laws, administered by a so-called Mixed Court, which was established at the instigation of Sir Harry Parkes in 1864, and is presided over by an official of the rank of Tung-chi. The cases are watched by foreign assessors from the different Consulates. The working of the Court, especially in regard to civil suits, is far from satisfactory, as the judge has not sufficient power to enforce his decisions. The matter has lately been engaging the attention of the authorities at Peking. For the French Concession there is a separate Mixed Court, which sits at the French Consulate.

44

In local affairs the residents govern themselves by means of Municipal Councils, under the authority of the "Land Regulations." These were originally drawn up by H.M.B. Consul in 1845, but have since undergone various amendments. In 1854 the first general Land Regulations the city charter, as they may be called-were arranged between the British Consul, Captain Balfour, and the local authorities, by which persons of all nationalities were allowed to rent land within the defined limits, and in 1863 the so-called American Settlement" was amalgamated with the British into one Municipality. The "Committee of Roads and Jetties," originally consisting of "three upright British Merchants," appointed by the British Consul, afterwards became the “Municipal Council," elected by the renters of land, and when the revised Land Regulations came into force in 1870, the "Council for the Foreign Community of Shanghai North of the Yang-king-pang," elected in January of each year by all householders who pay rates on an assessed rental of five hundred taels and owners of land valued at five hundred taels and over. The Council now consists of nine members of various nationalities, who elect their own chairman and vice-chairman, and who give their services free. A committee of residents was appointed in November, 1879, to revise the present regulations, and their work was considered and passed by the ratepayers in May, 1881. Many important improvements have been proposed, but they have yet to receive the sanction of the various governments. The Ministers at Peking have suggested some radical alterations, but these are so opposed to the necessities of the city that the residents, for their own preservation, are bound to offer a strenuous resistance, and it is therefore probable that the new Regulations will not come into force for some time. A separate Council for the French Concession was appointed in 1862, and now works under the "Réglement d'Organisation Municipale de la Concession Française," passed in 1868, and consists of four French and four foreign members, elected for two years, half of whom retire annually. They are elected by all owners of land on the Concession, or occupants paying a rental of a thousand francs per annum, or residents with an annual income of four thousand francs. This, it will be noticed, approaches much more nearly to "universal suffrage" than the franchise of the other